An Open Letter to Google: Naturism is Not Pornography

As you are more than likely aware, the Internet is the greatest advancement in human communication since the printing press. What sets this new technology apart is its capacity to disseminate information throughout every corner of the globe, instantly and without censure. This advancement has resulted in the sharing of ideas between people of disparate beliefs and philosophies, and has provided people who were once without a voice, like Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, a platform upon which to stand against the injustices in their culture. Only by adhering to principles of free expression can we hope to achieve social progress and equality. As chief purveyors of this newest and most influential communication technology, Google is uniquely obligated to champion free speech, and likewise, has a moral responsibility to remain neutral in matters of religion, creed and ideology. Google must never stifle creative thought or weigh in on matters of morality. I express this view as a concerned naturist/nudist. For decades, nudists/naturists have been stigmatized, marginalized and mischaracterized by the media. Depictions of the naturist lifestyle, which include innocent portrayals of the human body, are erroneously equated to pornography. The same mentality once compared the LGBT community with rapists and pedophiles. Naturism is not pornography, but a movement consistent with feminism and the promotion of a healthy body image. As you probably know, we live in a culture where both women and men are continually objectified in magazines, TV, and in other media. This continued objectification, coupled with unrealistic standards of beauty representing less than 1% of the population, and which now includes Photoshopped models, has a considerable role to play in how young people see themselves, and is a contributing factor to low self esteem, depression and suicide. The Internet, for the most part, offers little by way of contrast, and more often exacerbates the problem by providing curious teens access to countless depictions of unrealistic, unhealthy, and abusive sexual practices. Through Blogger, my constituents and I have fought to provide an alternative to pornography, expressed through literature, art, and innocent depictions of the human body. Naturist sites offer young and old alike a chance to see themselves as we all truly are, in our most natural state, with all of our variations and flaws. More importantly, naturist photography, which celebrates this free-body philosophy and lifestyle, depicts women as genuine human beings, not as sexually charged body parts or pin-up dolls that only satisfy male fantasies. This is what naturism is all about, and what it has represented, for nearly a century. Since its inception, Blogger existed as a safe haven for naturists to express this healthier alternative, and in so doing, has allowed for social progress in areas of feminism and body image. However, your new anti-nudity policy, which begins March 23rd, 2015, takes a great leap backward. While pornography will continue to thrive in your search engines, greatly aided by Google’s “incognito” feature, naturist bloggers fighting objectification and hyper-sexualization will forever be silenced. Egyptian born Aliaa Magda Elmahdy used nudity to make a powerful statement against the sexism inherent in her country, and the harsh dress code imposed upon women, by posting a nude image of herself on her blog. She received many death threats as a result, and was eventually forced to move to Europe, but the awareness she raised and the importance of her cause, I believe, was well worth the risks. Under Google’s new policy, Aliaa’s blog would have been made private, and therefore, silenced.While your position regarding artistic and educational nudity is to be commended, I urge you to amend your policy to include images of innocent, natural nudity, since, as your policy itself states, naturism is unarguably a “substantial benefit to the public.”

UPDATE: It looks as though, thanks to the efforts of like minded bloggers everywhere, Google actually reversed their decision to change their nudity policy, and will NOT be forcing blogs with nudity to shut down! “We’ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities”, Jessica Pelegio, a social product support manager at Google, wrote.I’d like to think that, of the 500+ readers who clicked on this letter, one of these may have had some influence with Google. Even if this post was just one of the million straws to break the camel’s back, I am thrilled. Hurrah for Free Speech!

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Dear Blogger User,

We’re writing to tell you about an upcoming change to the Blogger ContentPolicy that may affect your account.

In the coming weeks, we’ll no longer allow blogs that contain sexuallyexplicit or graphic nude images or video. We’ll still allow nuditypresented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, orwhere there are other substantial benefits to the public from not takingaction on the content.

The new policy will go into effect on the 23rd of March 2015. After thispolicy goes into effect, Google will restrict access to any blog identifiedas being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted,but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared theblog will be able to see the content we’ve made private.

Our records indicate that your account may be affected by this policychange. Please refrain from creating new content that would violate thispolicy. Also, we ask that you make any necessary changes to your existingblog to comply as soon as possible, so that you won’t experience anyinterruptions in service. You may also choose to create an archive of yourcontent via Google Takeout(https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/blogger).

I should not have to move. Nudists/naturists are continually being harassed and shunned from the public eye, whether it be from Facebook or Google. Our message is simple. We believe the human body is a good and innocent thing, NOT evil, not obscene! We believe human beings are rational creatures, not driven by instinct, and that we have the capacity to treat others, even those of the opposite sex, with respect, whether they are clothed or not. And for maintaining such a belief, we are treated like social lepers, or perverts. Why must we keep in hiding, shifting from and location to location, like criminals, like we have something to be ashamed of? This is patently absurd. Nudists must not cede any more ground to irrational gymnophobes. We must stand our ground and fight for a platform to speak!

I agree that naturism is moral, and that it may, in fact, be more ethical than the current standard. The nakedness taboo serves to fetishize the human body, making it an object of lust. That being said, I do not feel that naturism aligns itself to any religion. Anyone can be a naturist, including atheists. But, if I were to choose one faith that most reflects the values of naturism, that would have to be Jainism. It is one of the world’s oldest religions, it is entirely pacifistic, and there is a practicing sect of monks who go about completely nude!